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This is my birthday, so I don't feel like blogging. But I do want to link to this great article with author L.A. Banks talking about how moving her vampire books from the "black section" of the bookstore into the same section as Stephen King and Ann Rice helped her career (though she's still waiting to breakout Stephanie Meyers-style).

I'll be in New York passing out buttons at BEA so we might have some new visitors this week. If you're new to White Readers Meet Black Authors, welcome!  Please stay and have a look around.  (Usually, I post every Tuesday.)  There are plenty of recommendations for good books by black authors, reasons why everybody should read books by black authors, and discussions about what constitutes a "black book".

The holiday National Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month is in December, and yes, we will be celebrating again this year. 

There's even video!

Coming up: Father's Day book recommendations.

Nominate your favorite authors!

From Yvette Hayward, founder of The African American Literary Award Show, which will be held on Thursday, September 24, 2009 in New York City:

We are looking for participation from all book clubs, avid readers, and those who appreciate the literary art form regarding the nomination process. 

If you have the time, please review the categories below and select three (3) books/authors from each category and send your results to yvette@literaryawardshow.com. 

The nominations process for 2009 starts on Friday, May 15, 2009 and closes on Monday, June 30, 2009. 

To be eligible for the 2009 nominations, books and other literary works must be published between July 1, 2008 and June 30,2009. 

If you have any questions or need further information, please let me know.

The award categories for the 2009 African American Literary Awards Show are: 

Fiction 
Science Fiction 
Historical Fiction 
Mystery 
Romance 
Christian Fiction 
Street Fiction 
Erotica 
Biography/Memoir 

Non-Fiction 
Short stories/Anthologies 
Children’s Books – Best Story Written For Children 
Poetry 
Young Essayist 
Magazines (Literary) 
Magazines (Non Literary) 
Self-Help 
Bookstore of the year
Cook Books 
Finance 
Humorist Award of the Year (Stand-up Comics) 
Comedy Book Author of the Year 
Comic Strip 
Breakout Author of the Year (Male and Female) 
Self-published Author of the Year 
Independent Publishing House of the Year 
Publishing House of the Year 
Author of the Year Award (Male and Female) 
Book Club of the Year 
Television Writer of the Year 
Screenwriter of the Year 

If you heart black authors...

...now you can wear your heart on your sleeve...and your lapel. I just ordered a bunch of I HEART BLACK AUTHORS buttons to take with me to Book Expo America and to the American Library Association annual meeting.

And I'm going to send a free button to 25 people who holla back that they heart black authors too!

Rules: Post on your blog, send a Tweet or write on your Facebook page the title of the most recent book you read by a black author, and include a link to this blog post. Let me know in the comments you've done it (with a link to your blog). I'll randomly pick 25 lucky winners to receive a free I HEART BLACK AUTHORS button. Contest runs May 12-June 9. Winners will be announced June 16.

Heather Miller at the blog Experience Reading recently sent me this photo of herself with the book, Black Baby, White Hands by Jaiya John. She's putting her money where her mouth is. Are you?

Merry month of May links

Some May releases everybody should know about:

God Says No by James Hannaham. “A tender, funny tour of a mind struggling to do the right thing. A revelatory and sympathetic guide to a misunderstood world.”

—Steve Martin, author of Shopgirl

Shadow Valley by Steven Barnes (fantasy)

Where Did You Sleep Last Night? by Danzy Senna (memoir)

Kiss the Sky by Farai Chideya (novel)

I am Not Sydney Poitier by Percival Everett (Check out this starred review in Publishers Weekly, which states it has "the most sidesplitting dialogue this side of Catch-22")

Did you catch the cover story of the NY Times Book Review this weekend? Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor reviewed by Toure. RingShout points out that it's been 2 years since an African American made the cover. The blog also asks an interesting question about "post-black" fiction.

And another blogger asks Whitehead if Sag Harbor is YA, and Whitehead seemed to take offense. Whitehead responds that he dislikes talking about marketing rather than writing.

A nice review of Stacyann Chin's new memoir, The Other Side of Paradise. From the review: "The reader who is already familiar with Staceyann Chin, and who knows her as the riveting spoken word artist famous for her role in the Tony award winning Def Poetry Jam, will perhaps be surprised by this book. While Chin the performer is charismatic, tough, and assertively political, Chin the memoirist has a quieter voice. Her writing is exquisitely beautiful and emotionally tender."

Got any news to share? Lemme know.